Within the visual arts, collage is usually associated with Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism. Collage has also been a central element in many practices since World War II, ranging from Pop artists in the United States; from activist art in the 1960’s (such as The Collage of Indignation, 1967) to feminist work produced since the late 1960’s. Clearly, from these examples, the term collage relates directly to what is called photomontage and montage. Both of the latter have been major elements in representations of modernity: photomontage in, for example, highly politicized posters and journals, most notably during the 1930’s and, again, in anti–Vietnam War imagery; montage in the development of film, as in Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique (1924). Recently, collage and montage have described processes and effects within television, video, and varieties of products resulting from digital image manipulation: selecting, cutting, editing, piecing together, and thereby producing a particular combination.

In the spring of 1912, Pablo Picasso glued a piece of oil-cloth printed with imitation chair-caning to a painting of a cafe still life, thereby inaugurating the aesthetically revolutionary practice of collage. The Still Life with Chair Caning, which the artist also framed with a coarse mariner’s rope, is a small, oval, seemingly modest work, yet its effects on twentieth-century art have been profound. Picasso’s Still Life with Chair Caning is thought to be the first work in which the humble medium of collage announced itself as equal to painting. The intrusion of everyday, non artistic materials into the domain of high art challenged some of the most fundamental assumptions about painting inherited from both the classical and the more recent avant garde traditions. The invention of collage put into question prevailing notions of what and how works of art signify, what materials artists may use, and what constitutes unity in a work of art.

MAOM artist Jan Adams incorporates collage into her works which she calls ‘Memory Paintings.’ She inventively incorporates landmarks from cities and neighborhoods and personalizes them with notes and sign boards.

Jean McMullen the owner of MAOM and a well know watercolor artist combines collage elements with panting and calligraphy in her work. Her series of work centered around wine incorporates labels from the bottles and in some cases corks and wine glasses.

Both Jan and Jean will work with individuals to personalize a collage to celebrate a special event or a wonderful memory. Please come by the gallery to see their work along with that of all forty plus Missouri artists.